Since this is first and foremost a sports board, I'll mull this over in a separate thread. The travel ban absolutely could effect the sports world, and most prominently basketball and the country of Sudan.

http://basketball.realgm.com/info/nation...th-Sudan/A

I see 9 current NCAA players listed on this list who are originally from South Sudan or Sudan including players from powerhouses like Kentucky, Louisville and Georgetown. The NBA's Thom Maker was born in Sudan. Even though he has Australian citizenship now, the Bucks are worried he might be detained when they travel to and from Toronto to play an NBA game.

Iran doesn't have the number of players that Sudan does, but a few years ago Rice had a super nice guy named Arsalan Kazemi who was from Iran and played at Rice for 3 years before transferring to Oregon for his senior season (he got drafted in the 2nd round of the NBA Draft). Kazemi wasn't a terrorist - his folks owned a candy factory. Unfortunately our ass-wipe AD made a terrorist joke to him and another foreign player we had and they transferred because they were so mad. But Kazemi still lives in Houston and occasionally comes to our games (and I believe considers himself a Rice graduate?).

I hope this travel ban is quickly lifted. We're better than this as a country. Maybe when sports fans realize the repercussions of something like this in the sports world, they'll realize too it's over-stepping the needs of protecting the US from terrorism.

Sports often drive political change. Jackie Robinson certainly hastened the progress of racial integration across the board. When South Africa imposed Apartheid, the rest of the world reacted with sanctions and other actions. South Africa found ways around most of them, but when New Zealand announced that the All-Blacks would no longer play the Springboks, that was what many think was the straw that broke the camel's back.

I have very mixed feelings about Trump. This is one area where I disagree strongly. We need better screening and controls than we had under Obama, but this is way, way overkill.

(01-29-2017 08:57 AM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  Sports often drive political change. Jackie Robinson certainly hastened the progress of racial integration across the board. When South Africa imposed Apartheid, the rest of the world reacted with sanctions and other actions. South Africa found ways around most of them, but when New Zealand announced that the All-Blacks would no longer play the Springboks, that was what many think was the straw that broke the camel's back.

I have very mixed feelings about Trump. This is one area where I disagree strongly. We need better screening and controls than we had under Obama, but this is way, way overkill.

I agree it is overkill. It seems though that only way to ever get anything eventually right is to start that way. Hopefully a level of balance will come out of this.

Obama blocked Iraqi refugees for a time in 2011. Refresh me. Did we have all the protests and hand wringing then? Lady Liberty shed tears?

I'll take the safety of my family over sports any day of the week.


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Trump said this was working perfectly in his alternative universe.

Obama cancelled the Haitian refugee program and the Cuban program. There a hell of a lot more of those people playing baseball and football in the USA than the above. You libs don't seem upset about the Haiti/Cuban chit.

It is also the same with entertainment industry. One of the nominees for movies and all that is an Iranian film, and the director and others can't come to awards ceremonies right now because of the ban. Trump may need to revise it somewhat because what could effect this country. Look at the NBA? It is a sports business and he needs to change it. Why? He wants to make American Great Again? Effecting a business like the NBA and others could effect the country in a long run.

(01-29-2017 10:18 AM)DavidSt Wrote:  It is also the same with entertainment industry. One of the nominees for movies and all that is an Iranian film, and the director and others can't come to awards ceremonies right now because of the ban. Trump may need to revise it somewhat because what could effect this country. Look at the NBA? It is a sports business and he needs to change it. Why? He wants to make American Great Again? Effecting a business like the NBA and others could effect the country in a long run.

Priebus said this morning that "going forward" Green Card holders will not be detained unless the DHS officers feel there is a reason to. Evidently the administration is fine with the Judge's order last night. Likely this policy will undergo further tweaks. The main thing is that FINALLY someone is doing something. Could it have been done a bit differently? Probably. So What?

https://www.facebook.com/MoFarahGold/pos...8299785195

Multiple Olympic gold medalist Mo Farah's statement on his Facebook page.

Quote:“On 1st January this year, Her Majesty The Queen made me a Knight of the Realm. On 27th January, President Donald Trump seems to have made me an alien.

“I am a British citizen who has lived in America for the past six years — working hard, contributing to society, paying my taxes and bringing up our four children in the place they now call home. Now, me and many others like me are being told that we may not be welcome. It’s deeply troubling that I will have to tell my children that Daddy might not be able to come home — to explain why the President has introduced a policy that comes from a place of ignorance and prejudice.”

“I was welcomed into Britain from Somalia at eight years old and given the chance to succeed and realise my dreams. I have been proud to represent my country, win medals for the British people and receive the greatest honour of a knighthood. My story is an example of what can happen when you follow policies of compassion and understanding, not hate and isolation.”

WTF is this fool Mo talking about. Did he take to Facebook back in 2011.

BTW I was downtown today and got stuck in a protest near the George R Brown Convention Center (where the NFL Experience is for the Super Bowl). It was an anti-Trump protest and I suspect the NFL wasn't happy because traffic was a mess to begin with. But this is Houston we're talking about, not NYC or Washington or a big Californian city, and the protest was pretty tiny in nature compared to what I've seen in those other cities.

(01-29-2017 07:21 PM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  https://www.facebook.com/MoFarahGold/pos...8299785195

Multiple Olympic gold medalist Mo Farah's statement on his Facebook page.

Quote:“On 1st January this year, Her Majesty The Queen made me a Knight of the Realm. On 27th January, President Donald Trump seems to have made me an alien.

“I am a British citizen who has lived in America for the past six years — working hard, contributing to society, paying my taxes and bringing up our four children in the place they now call home. Now, me and many others like me are being told that we may not be welcome. It’s deeply troubling that I will have to tell my children that Daddy might not be able to come home — to explain why the President has introduced a policy that comes from a place of ignorance and prejudice.”

“I was welcomed into Britain from Somalia at eight years old and given the chance to succeed and realise my dreams. I have been proud to represent my country, win medals for the British people and receive the greatest honour of a knighthood. My story is an example of what can happen when you follow policies of compassion and understanding, not hate and isolation.”

By definition, he is an alien in this country. If he has a green card, he doesn't have a problem.

I don't care if it does.

The action was correct.

(01-29-2017 07:21 PM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  https://www.facebook.com/MoFarahGold/pos...8299785195

Multiple Olympic gold medalist Mo Farah's statement on his Facebook page.

Quote:“On 1st January this year, Her Majesty The Queen made me a Knight of the Realm. On 27th January, President Donald Trump seems to have made me an alien.

“I am a British citizen who has lived in America for the past six years — working hard, contributing to society, paying my taxes and bringing up our four children in the place they now call home. Now, me and many others like me are being told that we may not be welcome. It’s deeply troubling that I will have to tell my children that Daddy might not be able to come home — to explain why the President has introduced a policy that comes from a place of ignorance and prejudice.”

“I was welcomed into Britain from Somalia at eight years old and given the chance to succeed and realise my dreams. I have been proud to represent my country, win medals for the British people and receive the greatest honour of a knighthood. My story is an example of what can happen when you follow policies of compassion and understanding, not hate and isolation.”

Funny you bring this up...

Then there is his brother, Ahmed. According the Mirror (UK),

Quote:...[H]is younger brother Ahmed ... faces being booted out of Britain and sent back to Somalia. Ahmed, 27, was just two when he and an eight-year-old Mo were brought to Britain 25 years ago. Now he faces being deported back to the war-torn country for crimes that landed him in jail in the UK in 2011.

His other brother just was jailed at the end of last year. The last two of fifteen convictions involved B&E on an elderly person's home and then a knife attack.

Three points:
1. Since Mo is now a Brit, he has nothing to worry about. It's just faux liberal outrage.
2. Mo should be raging against or begging with the British government that is about to kick his bro out of public housing and back to Somalia. But he has done nothing to help him. He is silent, even as he is knighted, about a deportation his brother says could lead to his death.
3. So, Britain got a phenomenal athlete, but also had to accept his two criminal brothers in the process.

(01-29-2017 07:35 PM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  BTW I was downtown today and got stuck in a protest near the George R Brown Convention Center (where the NFL Experience is for the Super Bowl). It was an anti-Trump protest and I suspect the NFL wasn't happy because traffic was a mess to begin with. But this is Houston we're talking about, not NYC or Washington or a big Californian city, and the protest was pretty tiny in nature compared to what I've seen in those other cities.

Don't tell me that, I work in the Fulbright building and traffic has been a nightmare since last week.


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(01-29-2017 10:00 PM)UTSAMarineVet09 Wrote:  

(01-29-2017 07:35 PM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  BTW I was downtown today and got stuck in a protest near the George R Brown Convention Center (where the NFL Experience is for the Super Bowl). It was an anti-Trump protest and I suspect the NFL wasn't happy because traffic was a mess to begin with. But this is Houston we're talking about, not NYC or Washington or a big Californian city, and the protest was pretty tiny in nature compared to what I've seen in those other cities.

Don't tell me that, I work in the Fulbright building and traffic has been a nightmare since last week.


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My sister-in-law works there too. Good luck this week. You're pretty close to the street closures.

(01-29-2017 10:41 PM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  

(01-29-2017 10:00 PM)UTSAMarineVet09 Wrote:  

(01-29-2017 07:35 PM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  BTW I was downtown today and got stuck in a protest near the George R Brown Convention Center (where the NFL Experience is for the Super Bowl). It was an anti-Trump protest and I suspect the NFL wasn't happy because traffic was a mess to begin with. But this is Houston we're talking about, not NYC or Washington or a big Californian city, and the protest was pretty tiny in nature compared to what I've seen in those other cities.

Don't tell me that, I work in the Fulbright building and traffic has been a nightmare since last week.


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My sister-in-law works there too. Good luck this week. You're pretty close to the street closures.

Yeah and metro has been a nightmare too. I usually drive in, but I rode the bus on Friday and they had changed metro stops in downtown.


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(01-29-2017 09:02 AM)Fo Shizzle Wrote:  

(01-29-2017 08:57 AM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  Sports often drive political change. Jackie Robinson certainly hastened the progress of racial integration across the board. When South Africa imposed Apartheid, the rest of the world reacted with sanctions and other actions. South Africa found ways around most of them, but when New Zealand announced that the All-Blacks would no longer play the Springboks, that was what many think was the straw that broke the camel's back.

I have very mixed feelings about Trump. This is one area where I disagree strongly. We need better screening and controls than we had under Obama, but this is way, way overkill.

I agree it is overkill. It seems though that only way to ever get anything eventually right is to start that way. Hopefully a level of balance will come out of this.

Oh good, you and Owl are both giving Obama a pass on this. I was worried you'd both hold his feet to the fire, instead of looking the other way.

I read a 3 star Michigan State recruit is a refugee here.

http://www.freep.com/story/sports/high-s.../90096868/

Mustafa Khaleefah is from Iraq, and is here as a refugee. If Michigan State plays a game outside the US in the next 4 years? He can't leave the country.